The Blue Dog Democrat Myth

Oct 22, 2010

RUSH: Shelly in Pittsburgh. It’s great to have you with us. Hi.

CALLER: How are you?

RUSH: Very good. Thank you.

CALLER: Great. I just wanted to put my two cents in about who I think is the most dangerous type of candidates running today, you know, in this election in a couple of weeks are these Blue Dog Democrats. I think they’re sort of flying under the radar, and I think that they’re really counting on their spin on their voting record to keep them safely in office. We all know about the crazy, you know, communist type candidates that are out there running and, you know, they’re up front about it. But these Blue Dog guys are the ones who are trying to almost put something over on us as voters and make us think that they’re something that they’re really, really not. And it’s all sort of recent changes in their policy —

RUSH: Now, let me ask you a question.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Serious question here.

CALLER: Sure.

RUSH: Why, of all the Democrats in the country today, none of whom are popular, I mean the Democrats universally outside of the liberal citadels, New York, San Francisco, places like that, everybody’s blaming the Democrats — why are the Blue Dogs somehow insulated from being held accountable by their voters?

CALLER: Because I think that they are not being honest with who they really are. You know, I live in a district where we’re trying to get rid of a Blue Dog Democrat. And when you really delve into his voting record, you can see —

RUSH: Who is this guy?

CALLER: His name is Jason Altmire.

RUSH: I thought you were talking about Jason Altmire. Yeah, he’s one of these guys playing games with health care. He was trying to make everybody think he was going to vote against health care.

CALLER: Oh, drama queen, it went on forever.

RUSH: Yeah, drama queen, friendship flock and all that, right.

CALLER: Yes, yes. And so he finally announced, you know, a couple days before the actual vote that he was gonna vote ‘no,’ but all along, you know, the SBA lists &ndash; this is a great example — had polling of District 4 in Pennsylvania that specifically said we absolutely, our district did not want this health care bill. And he kept saying, &ldquo;Oh, I’m waiting —

RUSH: I know.

CALLER: — to hear from my constituents.&rdquo; We were going to his offices. We were bombarding his staff with phone calls and letters, and all this other stuff, and that polling data had been like that for days and days —

RUSH: Well, you’re right about something, your instincts are right. There’s no such thing as a Blue Dog Democrat. If you scratch the belly of a Blue Dog you get red.

CALLER: No, he is not a Blue Dog conservative Democrat.

RUSH: Of course not.

CALLER: He is a lapdog.

RUSH: The Blue Dogs have tried to define themselves as Blue Dog conservative Democrats on the basis that they’re fiscally responsible, right?

CALLER: Well, he tries to do some social stuff, too, he tries to call himself pro-life yet he voted for the stem cell research act of 2007.

RUSH: Yeah, well —

CALLER: He tries to do both.

RUSH: Look, I understand your concern. Everybody’s concerned that their Democrat is gonna pull out a surprise here but I don’t know that social issues are that much front and center on the table this election —

CALLER: I guess was trying to give an example. There’s a ton of, you know, in our district, for example, with Altmire, there’s a ton of things that he’s fiscally not conservative about. He voted for the stimulus bill, he spent tens of thousands of dollars on these franking pieces, ironically to tell us how he’s safeguarding our tax dollars.

RUSH: You make a great point. It’s a point that we’ve been making on this program since before the health care debate really intensified. That is, there’s no such thing as a Blue Dog. If they’ve got a D behind their name, they’re a Democrat.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: And they’re a liberal.

CALLER: All over the country I urge them, if you live in a Blue Dog district, look at your representative or your Senator and find out if they say they’re a conservative Democrat, look at their record, see what they’re voting for. Did they vote for Pelosi for speaker of the House?

RUSH: Exactly.

CALLER: Then you’re not conservative.

RUSH: See, that’s what you have to remember. If it weren’t for the Blue Dogs, we wouldn’t have had Pelosi as the speaker.

CALLER: Exactly. Exactly. I don’t know. You know, we are not stupid, Rush. The voters across this country are not stupid people.

RUSH: Okay. So why do you think your voters are gonna fall under the spell of Mr. Altmire?

CALLER: Oh, I’m not. I am definitely not under Mr. Altmire’s spell. I just think that the Blue Dog Democrats should know, they need to understand we aren’t stupid. We will not fall under their spell. That’s why we’re working to get the real conservatives in office to get rid of these guys. You know, if the district elects somebody knowing that this person tends to be, you know, more into socialist policies that’s one thing. But if these candidates are trying to sort of trick people into thinking that they’re something that they’re not, I think these candidates should know that people aren’t asleep anymore. We are not stupid people.

RUSH: Exactly right.

CALLER: We are mothers and fathers and grandparents and aunts and uncles and, you know, people of all across the —

RUSH: Oh, let’s not stop there.

CALLER: — socioeconomic status. And we’re sick of it.

RUSH: Step-kids, step-uncles, grandparents, all that stuff. Let me tell you something, Shelly. I’m really proud of you. This week the most cogent, the strongest, the most forceful, fearless, courageous callers we’ve had are women, these conservative women. Shelly, people like you, I think you are largely the determining factor in this election coming up. I really do. I’m glad you’re out there, and I’m glad you called.